Progressives say dire climate reports point to need for 'Green New Deal'
Progressive House lawmakers are pointing to last week’s damning climate report as proof that Democrats next year must create a new special committee focused solely on finding a solution to warming temperatures.
Supporters of the Green New Deal — an idea to create a committee that would aim to get the country to 100 percent renewable energy within 10 years — are hoping the dire report issued by the Trump administration will ease party infighting and get skeptical Democratic members on board.
“If anything these reports signify how much this special committee is needed,” said Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Ocasio-Cortez timed the proposal for the committee with a sit-in earlier this month at the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the likely Speaker next year. She argued that the reinstitution of the old House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that ran from 2007 to 2011 — suggested earlier this month by Pelosi — needed to have a stronger focus.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/419014-progressives-say-dire-climate-reports-point-to-need-for-green-new?userid=229233